Speaking on Friday at the legislative chamber in Banjul at a day’s sensitisation forum for members on the Anti-Corruption Act, 2012, Speaker Abdoulie Bojang said parliamentarians play an essential leadership role in combating corruption throughout the legislative process, and in their oversight and representative function.
The Friday event was organised by the African Parliamentarians Network against Corruption (APNAC) The Gambia Chapter and was held under the theme: ‘To combat corruption, Let each enlighten one.’
Speaker Bojang said the network recognises that parliamentarians play an important role in combating corruption throughout the legislative process and that “corruption is undoubtedly one of the greatest constraining factors to economic and social development in the African Continent as it stifles economic growth.”
He described corruption as “a disease that threatens the hopes of the poor for a better future for themselves and their children. It drains finances that might otherwise go to programmes that bring education within reach of poor children, or that offer health care to the ordinary citizens. Corruption diverts funds intended to provide essential services that are critical in the eradication of poverty.”
The chairman of the local APNAC chapter, Mam Cherno Jallow, said corruption reminded that corruption is “as old as humankind is and its complete eradication is an illusion but to control and minimise it is a possibility”.
He said although there are several conventions dealing with corruption and bribery, there was no single globally accepted definition of corruption and that also contributes to the complexity of the fight against corruption.
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